Lawn Signs

After lunch today I took the Tundra up to the Bolt Hole with the intention of doing some scouting around for deer and, if the opportunity arises, perhaps shooting myself a black bear. The game cameras Mark and I have had out have documented plenty of bear in the area including a couple of decent sized males to go along with two Mamas and their sets of cubs. The Mamas and cubs are, of course off limits, but should I stumble upon one of the larger males....

It rained the entire time I was driving up here, is still raining now and may even be raining when I get up in the morning. If that's the case, all bets are off.

On the drive up I noticed something interesting. My route takes me through the town of Ithaca, NY on Route 13. I may have mentioned the little bumper sticker that caught my attention a few months back that read "Ithaca: 10 square mile of beauty surrounded by reality." I assumed it was referring to the well know liberal/leftist bent of the college town's politics. (Ithaca is home to not only Ithaca College but Cornell University.) There's one home on the west side of town that sports a lawn sign calling for President Bush's impeachment. That sign has been up for over a year.

Well, as I drove along Route 13 today I noticed more lawn signs. Not surprising given the election is less than 50 days away. What did surprise me was that the vast majority of those signs were for the McCain ticket. These signs were from west of Ithaca through Cortland, where I picked up I-81. They weren't all on the lawns of homes either, some were in front of businesses. A rough estimate would put the mix at about 10-2 McCain vs. Obama. And this was in New York. Granted this is truly upstate New York, not the "upstate" that the NY Times talks about, but the real rural regions of upstate. This is indicative of little, I know, but with the Obama campaign starting to crumble and exhibit signs of panic....

When your No.1 is dissing the other sides' No.2 it is not a good sign. I wonder what the internal polling is saying? External polling seems to be showing huge gains for the McCain/Palin team.